Liquid sprayers have long been used to spray liquids of various types. Earlier sprayers included a tank equipped with a hand-operated pump, which would be used to supply the pressure necessary to deliver the liquid contained in a reservior in the tank to a hand-held wand (with attached spray nozzle) used for application of the liquid. A shortcoming associated with this type of spraying device is that considerable time and effort is required to manually operate the pump to maintain the appropriate pressure in the tank or related vessel for spraying.
More recent liquid sprayers include the use of a battery-powered pumping system. In these systems, the portable sprayer includes a pump operated by electrical power supplied by a rechargeable battery. The pump is typically housed in a pump unit or the like, which is inserted into the sprayer tank. The rechargeable batteries are also housed within the pump unit and supply the electrical power necessary to operate the pump.
In these battery-powered sprayer systems, a battery charger must be placed somewhere in the system to permit the batteries to be recharged when depleted. In the alternative, the sprayer can be plugged into an electrical outlet or other source of AC power when possible to prevent depletion of or as a back-up to the batteries. A shortcoming associated with these battery-powered pumping systems is that there is always the potential for a complete failure of the battery charge, which cannot be replaced without major repair to the system. In such a situation, the only other option may be to plug the device into an AC outlet. However, a user may not always be in a location where the use of such alternate AC power is feasible or available.
Accordingly, a need exists for a portable, battery-powered pump for a liquid sprayer that allows for more convenient replacement of the power supply prior to and during spraying operations.